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How-To Geek

Vampire devices are electronic devices that still draw power even when the device appears to be off. In some cases the the draw is quite small as is the case with an electronic transformer which carries a steady 1 watt load when the device attached to it is turned off. In other cases the draw can be surprisingly high, as is the case with many cable boxes and other media peripherals that consume a significant amount of power when they are powered off (as they do a variety of tasks behind the scenes such as updating programming schedules, recording and downloading content, etc.)

As a result of increasing awareness about vampire devices and vampire power loads, many consumers have begun putting non-essential electronics on power strips that can be turned off when the device is not in use.